Delivery Dancer’s Arc: Inverse
Short Statement – to be updated

Introduction
Part of the Delivery Dancer series (initiated in 2022), this work follows the protagonists Ernst Mo and En Storm—originally introduced in the previous work, Delivery Dancer’s Sphere. In that earlier piece, they were riders for the Delivery Dancer platform, racing through a fictional Seoul while trapped in time dilation and navigational labyrinths. In this new iteration, they appear as delivery riders within a subterranean city—a kind of citadel—called Novaria. Ancient artifacts and temporal devices, containing concepts of time long thought extinct, flow into this vertical city through customs. As Ernst Mo begins delivering these relics, a chase ensues, sparking a conflict between the Timekeepers, who guard the contemporary time system, and the Restorationists, who seek to restore the ancient temporalities. As in other works in the series, the relationship between Ernst Mo and En Storm remains romantic yet ambiguous. What does En Storm know that Ernst Mo does not, and why is she willing to risk her life to save the other? In one world they are lovers; in another, they are enemies fueled by murderous intent; in yet another, they are total strangers. These are the states of affairs of possible worlds. These are the ways in which two entities may exist (the ways they could be), and furthermore the ways they could stand to each other.
In terms of image production, this work utilizes game engine-based animation and generative AI in a 1:1 ratio throughout the entire process.

Two Works as Mutual Spin-offs
Delivery Dancer’s Arc: Inverse is a mirror image or “twin” to Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0° Receiver, produced around the same time. While both works originate from nearly identical premises and preliminary setups, they diverge completely in both form and content. One might view Inverse as the inverted world of Receiver—a mirror image representing an inversion of preconditions. The two works propose two distinct timelines surrounding the protagonists; yet, even these are merely two possibilities among an infinite multitude of potential timelines. Small variations in events gradually lead to radical shifts and entirely different developments. Structurally, the two works’ mirror state resembles the relationship of Ernst Mo and En Storm themselves—representing two realized possibilities out of countless versions of themselves across infinite worlds. In essence, the two works serve as mutual spin-offs(or “side stories”) to one another.

Ernst Mo (VO)
I remember it now, En Storm.
In this infinite continuum of possibilities, I kill you forever.
And in some infinities, you eternally chase me.
In other worlds, we don’t know each other.
In this world, I try to rescue you but fail…
I now understand what it means for there to be only two possibilities with thin enough density among all the different versions of us.

— From the script

Rupture Sequence
Toward the conclusion of the work, a 90-second segment titled the “Rupture Sequence” presents a series of video fragments re-combined and re-edited at random with each playback. Countless clips created through the collaborative decision-making of humans and machines (AI, machine vision), including those not selected for the final cut, are randomly shuffled and loaded, regardless of the narrative. These constantly varying images flicker intensely at a speed that defies immediate perception. The “Rupture Sequence” escapes the coherence of language and transcends narrative closure, surrounding the viewer with a deluge of images and sound. It is an attempt to reclaim the rejected and discarded images by human decision from the repository back into the work. in this process, human decision-making is excluded in favor of pure algorithmic randomness. Footage produced in vast quantities via generative AI, yet omitted due to errors, incompleteness, or low quality, inhabits its own world, allowing for infinite versions made possible by the editing agency. In “Rupture Sequence”, what the audience glimpses is the fleeting moment of countless possible worlds that brush past and vanish.

Rupture Sequence Total Volume: 2.77GB
A-Shot Footage: 1.31GB (231 files)
Error Shot Footage: 1.40GB (241 files)

Conditions of the World
Interspersed throughout the work are four segments where the screen goes black, leaving only a narrator’s voiceover. In the script, these chapters are titled “Conditions of the World,” narrated by the artist, Ayoung Kim. These segments exist on an extradiegetic level outside the story world—an intervention by the storyteller herself. The content is a synthesis of Kim’s own writing and world-building parameters derived from dialogues with several LLM-based AI models. This intentionally reveals that the world-building was a collaborative effort between the creator and the machine. These chapters offer fragmentary knowledge about the fictional world of Novaria, mentioning its history, geography, a monumental stone tablet inscribed with an ancient calendar, bioluminescent organisms called “Lumina,” and social rules and festivals.

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Source: ACC website

The ACC Future Prize is an interdisciplinary art award that honors innovative artists who push the boundaries of creativity and explore new possibilities for the future. Ayoung Kim’s research has extensively examined the connections between fact and fiction, documentation and portrayal, and the contemporary challenges arising from historical events in social, cultural, political, and economic spheres. Since 2017, in particular, Ayoung Kim has gained recognition in both domestic and international art scenes for her distinctive approach, which transforms the grand narratives of migration, capitalism, and state ideology into complex, hybrid speculative narratives, blending elements of archaeology, futurism, and science fiction.

In this exhibition, Kim highlights the numerous traditional calendar and timekeeping practices that have been forgotten or lost due to Western modernization. Although each culture possesses its own unique timekeeping system and calendar, reflecting its history and philosophy, the Gregorian calendar has become the global standard in the modern world. The standardization of time and calendars is linked to the dynamics of imperialism and political power during modernization and globalization. This work puts forth the traditional cosmologies and time systems of diverse cultures that have gradually vanished due to Western modernization, reflecting her effort to reintroduce them into the narrative of contemporary art.

In the prequel, Delivery Dancer’s Sphere, Ernst Mo and En Storm, the two protagonists who raced through Seoul in the virtual world and fell into a maze of time delays and navigation, find themselves in a new virtual city. When Ernst Mo accidentally delivers an artifact from a past time known to have been lost, she finds herself in the middle of a clash between different time periods and worlds. In the exhibition title, “Arc” references the curves and arcs of sundials and calendar plates featured in the works, symbolizing the timeline, and evoking the connection between time and space, humans and history, and spaces of escape. “Inverse” refers to the concept of an inverse relationship, specifically the idea of time as the inverse of speed in physics.

It suggests that alternative times and spaces exist, with multiple worlds coexisting within the gaps formed by the relentless pace of competition. Furthermore, it highlights the adaptable nature of the Delivery Dancer series, where protagonists maintain their self-identity yet are capable of change and emphasizes the central question of the series—mirroring the “story” that twists, folds, and meanders. This “transformation” of time “connects” space and time, and in the process, provides an opportunity for indigenous worldviews, which are often marginalized and erased, to reflect on the complex relationship between tradition and modernity and the meaning of time.

The ACC Future Prize has closely looked at Kim’s work because it delves into her exploration of time and modernity, connecting modernization with imperialism, tradition with indigenousness, and history with the future. It represents an effort to comprehend the conflicts and disruptions caused by modernity and to envision a non-Western, Asian future that fosters and broadens new possibilities. Moreover, Ayoung Kim earnestly activates the tense of the future through her collaboration with AI. The computational outputs of AI systems, derived from her speculative narrative, represent not just a vision of the future but an ongoing calculation of what the future could be. She combines tradition and modernity in the flow of cosmic time and unfolds an imagined future in which numerous modernities collide, break, and reappropriate. This is a question about contemporary human life and the present, and a vast journey to new life possibilities in search of answers.

This exhibition explores a realm of possibilities that transcends time and space, linking unrelated entities. In addition to imagining a dislocated time and space, the exhibition invites us to rethink the cultural and historical power relations between the state, politics, and religion surrounding modernization. Through Ayoung Kim – Delivery Dancer’s Arc: Inverse, we aim to broaden our horizons with new experiences and unfamiliar sensations as we navigate the ever-expanding labyrinth of space and time.

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